2 violent days push death toll past 70 in CSRA crime surge

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - With three slayings in two days, the death toll of a nearly yearlong crime surge in the CSRA has sured 70.

The region had been using a brief lull in the violence, but that’s changed.

In the latest incident, a car enger was killed Monday in Aiken when someone in another vehicle opened fire. A day earlier on Sunday, a man was accused of stabbing and beating his 79-year-old stepfather to death in Augusta and a 20-year-old was shot dead in Allendale.

Also on Sunday, two teenagers were shot but survived. Then on Tuesday, there were two more nonfatal shootings, on Sedgefield Drive in south Augusta.

We started tracking the surge in deadly crime last April. As the region’s largest city, Augusta has been hit especially hard, but the outbreak has affected communities large and small on both sides of the Savannah River.

Many of the more than 70 victims have been young men, and authorities have blamed much of the problem on gangs.

The shootings Sunday and Monday seem to potentially fit that profile, but authorities classified the Augusta stabbing as a domestic incident.

Crime outbreak makes a resurgence

Monday’s shooting in Aiken County happened around 5 p.m. in the 1600 block of Edgefield Highway. The victim was a enger in a car when another car pulled up and someone in it started shooting.

The victim, 30-year-old Marquel S. Judge, was taken to Aiken Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 8:23 p.m. from a gunshot wound to the head, according to authorities.

The other two people in the car with Judge were able to identify the suspects as Jorge Valentino Espinoza, 21, and April Corlan Hudson, 18, who were later arrested during a traffic stop, according to the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office.

Espinoza is charged with murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and two counts of attempted murder. Hudson is charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Judge will be autopsied in Newberry.

Sunday was an even deadlier day across the CSRA.

In Augusta, Richmond County deputies say Clarence Flanigan, 79, was stabbed and beaten to death at his home in the 4000 block of Madison Lane.

Deputies said they found his body with a stab wound to the upper torso after they were called to the home at 7:42 p.m. “in reference to a mental evaluation.”

When they got there, Marcus Banks, 38 – the victim’s stepson, who was listed as homeless – told them there was a dead body in the home and he wanted it gone.

Banks then was detained, and Flanigan was pronounced dead at 8:56 p.m.

Deputies listed Banks as homeless and said he was arrested. Charges listed in the incident report include murder and possession of a firearm or knife during a crime.

An autopsy of Flanigan is scheduled at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation lab.

Also, a 20-year-old man was shot dead in Allendale early Sunday.

According to the Allendale Police Department, officers were on the scene around 12:15 a.m. Sunday.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division will be leading the investigation with the Allendale Police Department’s help.

Authorities haven’t provided the address of the incident or the name of the victim.

In addition to the homicides, there have been a few nonfatal shootings in recent days:

• A person was injured in a shooting around 1:10 p.m. Tuesday on Sedgefield Drive, which is in a mobile home park south of Phinizy Road between Mike Padgett Highway and Peach Orchard Road. The victim was shot multiple times. Four suspects were arrested.
• There was another shooting Tuesday around 2 p.m. at the Southgate Plaza, 1631 Gordon Highway. to investigate a report of a shooting. Deputies found a man who’d been shot at least once, and he was taken to a hospital. A suspect was identified, and deputies were investigating.
• A 17-year-old was injured around 8:04 p.m. Sunday in a shooting at the Magnolia Court apartment complex in Augusta. The victim was shot by a 16-year-old during a fight at the complex in the 200 block of East Telfair Street, authorities said. The victim was shot in the right thigh and suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.
• Also on Sunday, the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office took a 15-year-old into custody after a shooting off Lake Greenwood Drive in the Lakes and Streams neighborhood. Deputies said one person was taken to a hospital after the incident in the North Augusta area.

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